Landlord Wears A Mask

Chapter 2: Ascension

Thankfully, the woman who'd dropped a bombshell out of nowhere was able to 'recreate' his room. The panic that had settled in was washing away. He did not want to lose his senses, so this was fortunate.

It allowed him to feel a sense of security in his room.

When he regained composure, Adam looked towards her again. His instincts told him that she would not harm him. Maybe it was wrong, but he had no choice but to believe since he'd no control over anything.

She introduced herself with just one word: 'Gaia'.

Then continued on to explain to him many things in an orderly fashion. From the beginning to end without missing a detail. Adam fell into silence... It was only after regaining his senses, he spoke:

"So I'm not dead?" It might have been obvious what happened to her, but Adam still couldn't wrap his head around it. There was something off about the physics of this world and how it interacted with him.

"That's what I've been trying to tell you." Gaia shut down his suspicions. He only had her word to go by at this point, so there was no choice but to believe on her. That's despite the strange name she gave.

"So why can't you just send me back?" Adam got straight to the point. He wasn't going to dilly-dally regardless of how 'interesting' circumstances were. A change in his environment was cause for concern.

He wasn't used to being out of his element.

The woman held her own head before realising none of her words were heard. Perhaps what she'd said earlier didn't matter to him in the first place. Maybe she had rushed the explanation a bit too much.

"You ascended." Gaia simplified into two words.

"The fuck is that-"

"Language." Her expression turned cold for a moment. Cowardly as he was, Adam did not want to offend her. Regardless of whatever cosmic being she was, it wasn't worth losing control of his emotions.

He needed to reign himself in for now...

"So you say I 'ascended'." He repeated.

"That's correct." Gaia nodded.

"How?" Adam said the great million dollar question.

"I have no idea." She shrugged. It didn't seem to bother her one bit. An attitude that actually made Adam calmer rather than angry. He felt more at ease when no one was giving him suspicious favours.

"Can I 'descend' now?" Judging from her wording, it seemed like he had managed to cross over into an alternate dimension. Exactly how was unknown, but it seemed like she used this opportunity to test him.

Now what?

"Climbing up is easier than descending. Even for an immortal, their existence would be erased." Gaia crushed his hopes. He imagined there was some sort of void needed to be crossed between the 'Realms'.

He wasn't sure how he crossed it the first time, but now he was stuck. There was this unknown cosmic being that had him in her hands. Adam admitted that he could only hope she'd be compassionate.

"I don't get it." It was already grating on his nerves that he had to rely on others. Now he had to accept that he somehow 'ascended'? What did that even mean? Wasn't that some sort of eastern concept?

"Think of it like gravity. If you throw something upwards, it will encounter resistance. Then..." Gaia tried to explain it. The summary was different from what he'd imagined, but the results were similar.

He kept it in mind.

"Fine. Throwing something down wouldn't be good for it. So... how did I get past the 'resistance'?" Adam spoke while compressing the data. If her explanation using 'gravity' was to be completely believed, then going upwards shouldn't have been an easy task.